What a year it’s been! So long 2009, Hello 2010…

Posted by winesleuth in Argentina, Australia, England, France, German wine, Portugal, Videos | 7 comments

I’m not really one to look back, I’m either daydreaming about the future or looking forward to tonight’s wine – more or less the same thing. But I saw one of Niamh’s tweets about her year-end round-up and it got me to reminiscing about my vinous adventures this past  year. The great thing about a blog – I’ve got a record of many of my favourite drinking adventures. Not all of them mind you, because many I just never got around to blogging about but I did manage to put up almost 120 blog posts this year! I would have done more but I was computer-less over the summer after my laptop was stolen in June.

This was definitely the year that The Winesleuth embraced video in all it’s gory messiness. Whether the videos made any sense, well, I’ll let you decide but I sure did have a lot of fun making them. I’d like to get a bit more creative in 2010 and maybe even, dare I say it, a bit more professional. My favourites of the year include ones I made with my good friend and fellow wineblogger Wine90 – she just cracks me up. Here we’re reviewing the Balfour Brut Rose….

But Bibendum Dan was another excellent foil, here we are talking about hairy armpit wines…

Fun events, as when Catavino came to town and their winetasting at Vinoteca…

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or the Naked Wines Argentine wine auction…..

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and then there’s just amusing and charming winemakers…Etienne Hugel of the Alsatian winemaker Hugel & Fils…

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and Neil McGuigan of the Australian McGuigan Vineyards, to name a few…

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And, of course, the vids of my wine reviews, my favourite has to be one I did in S. Carolina while I was on holiday – every time I see it, it reminds me of what a great holiday I had…

Of course there was Twitter as well and the Foodies, most especially Eatlikeagirl with whom I did the Covent Garden Real Food Market over the course of late summer/Autumn and two very cold December days. There were so many events and wines drunk, I mean really, it’s hard to choose but the year-end visit to the Sampler, and the magnum of ’86 Ch. Grand Puy Lacoste for Christmas dinner have to be two of the best ways to end 2009.

Posts that got the most comments were funnily enough, both German, but on opposite ends of the wine spectrum – Blue Nun and Rieslings for a cold December Night – go Germany! I plan to take a trip to the German vineyards this year, can’t wait to see what’s in store.

It was also the year I discovered English wines, even taking a trip to Oxfordshire courtesy of Andrew at Spittoon and Portuguese wines. Looking forward to delving deeper into both regions in 2010. I took plenty of trips this year, both around the English vineyard scene as well as abroad. In October I found myself in Portugal for the European Winebloggers Conference held in Lisbon. The highlight of that trip had to be a visit to the Cork forests of Tejo and getting a demonstration of cork stripping.

And cru Beaujolais! I was re-introduced to the delights of cru Beaujolais by a fellow blogger (Miss Vicky Wine) who’s family produces Fleurie, which just incidentally happens to now be one of my favourites! Yet another wine region to explore in the coming year.  Boy, do I have a lot to do in 2010!  Now if I could just somehow get out of that pesky thing called work….

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this blog as much as I’ve enjoyed writing and videoing it! Here’s to 2010’s adventures in wineland. Salut! Salud! Sláinte! Tchin, tchin! and Cheers!